The field of the present invention relates to optical devices incorporating distributed optical structures. In particular, a multiple wavelength optical source incorporating at least one distributed optical structure is disclosed herein.
Distributed optical structures employed in the multiple wavelength optical sources disclosed or claims herein may be implemented with a variety of adaptations, such as those described in:                U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/811,081 entitled “Holographic spectral filter” filed Mar. 16, 2001 in the name of Thomas W. Mossberg;        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/843,597 entitled “Optical processor” filed Apr. 26, 2001 in the name of Thomas W. Mossberg;        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/229,444 entitled “Amplitude and phase control in distributed optical structures” filed Aug. 27, 2002 in the names of Thomas W. Mossberg and Christoph M. Greiner (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,678,429 issued Jan. 13, 2004);        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/602,327 entitled “Holographic spectral filter” filed Jun. 23, 2003 in the name of Thomas W. Mossberg;        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/653,876 entitled “Amplitude and phase control in distributed optical structures” filed Sep. 2, 2003 in the names of Thomas W. Mossberg and Christoph M. Greiner;        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/740,194 entitled “Optical multiplexing device” filed Dec. 17, 2003 in the names of Dmitri Iazikov, Thomas W. Mossberg, and Christoph M. Greiner;        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/794,634 entitled “Temperature-compensated planar waveguide optical apparatus” filed Mar. 5, 2004 in the names of Dmitri Iazikov, Thomas W. Mossberg, and Christoph M. Greiner;        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/798,089 entitled “Optical structures distributed among multiple optical waveguides” filed Mar. 10, 2004 in the names of Christoph M. Greiner, Thomas W. Mossberg, and Dmitri Iazikov;        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/842,790 entitled “Multimode planar waveguide spectral filter” filed May 11, 2004 in the names of Thomas W. Mossberg, Christoph M. Greiner, and Dmitri Iazikov;        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/857,987 entitled “Optical waveform recognition and/or generation and optical switching” filed May 29, 2004 in the names of Lawrence D. Brice, Christoph M. Greiner, Thomas W. Mossberg, and Dmitri Iazikov; and        U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 10/898,527 entitled “Distributed optical structures with improved diffraction efficiency and/or improves optical coupling” filed Jul. 22, 2004 in the names of Dmitri Iazikov, Christoph M. Greiner, and Thomas W. Mossberg.        
Each of these applications and patent is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.